The Lord has placed us in an environment with a certain supply of the gifts of His grace, and we didn't earn any of them. Everything we have, and everything we are able to obtain, comes as a result of the Grace of God; we have deserved nothing. Christians suffer for many reasons,sometimes through no fault of their own. A Christian will experience a normal amount of suffering as part of human existence.
From my experiences, I have learned alot and God have pruned me so much over the years. In reality, I cannot expect to escape circumstances because they will always happen, one way or another. Without circumstances, my self-discovery will not be completed and my self-judgment will be biased and imperfect. This is why I am to work along with the Holy Spirit so that I may make amendments as the circumstances demand. By discovering who I am, I will also be finding whom I am not and whom I can be through Christ. My greatest teachers have been my circumstances because my greatest spiritual growth occurred in the most unfavorable of circumstances. When I am most aware of my weaknesses, I am more inclined to collapse into God's strength and experience His amazing grace. "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9). Having faith in God allows me to go as far as I can while trusting in God's grace to overcome the difficulties I face every day. God is asking me to stay strong in faith, keep at it, to carry on, to stick with it, as I trust in HIS possibilities. In doing so God will lift me above my circumstances as He develops my character. Bad things are never good and God never wants bad things to happen, but the Bible clearly repeated reminding me that God uses trials to work for our good for His Glory. Sometimes God allows us to suffer so He can refine us. Suffering purifies us like fire refines gold (1 Pet. 1:6-7). God will ultimately work out for my good and for His Glory. The Bible and the Holy Spirit clearly taught me that God didn't merely promise me that temporal good will come out of difficult situations but did promised that whatever I do during my trials that God will be with me and I will Glorify God.
There is a every good reason for me to face circumstances and chronic pains. The reason is for me to work along with the Holy Spirit so that I can make changes in my life as the circumstances demand. That God already knows me thoroughly (Psa. 139:1-6) and He knows what is best for me. I will trust Him even though I will not always understand Him since He is God. I just need to remember of who He is that I can fully trust Him. Because I know that my suffering produces perseverance, character; and hope.
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Deny your weakness, and you will never realize God's strength in you. (Joni Eareckson Tada)
Man, made in the image of God, has a purpose - to be in relationship to God, who is there. Man forgets his purpose and thus he forgets who he is and what life means. (Francis Schaeffer)
We never know when our disappointment will be His appointment. (Charles Swindoll)
The best prayers have often more groans than words. John Bunyan
We do not choose suffering simply because we are told to, but because the one who tells us to describes it as the path to everlasting joy. John Piper
Christianity is a battle - not a dream. Wendell Phillips
This is God's universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world. John Piper
Truly it is a misery even to live upon the earth. The more spiritual a man desires to be, the more bitter does his present life become to him; because he sees more clearly and perceives more sensibly the defects of human corruption. Thomas a Kempis
Paul's sufferings complete Christ's afflictions not by adding anything to their worth, but by extending them to the people they were meant to save. John Piper
God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them. C.S. Lewis
"God's purpose in increasing our trials is to sensitize us to people we never would have been able to relate to otherwise." Joni Eareckson Tada
"God deliberately chooses weak, suffering and unlikely candidates to get His work done, so that in the end, the glory goes to God and not to the person." Joni Eareckson Tada
"Suffering drives us to our knees in weakness, where God wants us, so that His strength is most obvious, not ours." Joni Eareckson Tada
"God wants us to lay our burdens on Him and rest in His love. It's His responsibility to work out the purpose and plan in our hardships. Only our refusal to trust Him....can hinder His purposes in our lives." Joni Eareckson Tada
Canadian Mark Pickup (disabled with multiple sclerosis). He has said, I have been more service to God disabled than during my able-bodied years. This didnt happen despite my disability but because of my disability.
Joni Tada said it beautifully:
"Sometimes God will use suffering and affliction to sandblast us to the core and get us seriously thinking about larger than life issues of heaven and hell, I just don't know that we would think about these issues were it not for an ice-cold splash of suffering waking us out of our spiritual slumber. God's purpose in redeeming us is not to make our lives happy, healthy, and free of trouble. It is not an escape from our physical pains. His purpose is to make us more like Christ. He will chose to allow spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis or blindness or stroke or Alzheimer's or whatever to not only teach us, but also our loved ones, about what it means to become more like him."
)
